Introducing Season Two of Loading Dock Talks (and my NEW newsletter!!)
Thanks for waiting, we are finally back! This season we talk to our chef friends about family recipes, what it means to be a chef and critical things like their fav taco filling.
Growing up in London and the US, I never understood all the tv/movie characters that would complain about their family (of origin). I just thought, I loved mine so much and we always had such a fun time. The food was always flowing, fried muhugo, bhajia, kachori, dhokla, tikki puri as well as the drinks. I was always appealing to a younger kaka (my Dad’s brothers) to give me a little sip of their beers, and of course the constant jokes and banter at volumes that may have had neighbors wondering if a fight was about to break out. The Mistrys are loud.
Things changed when I realized I was queer. I had the usual teenage angst “I’d rather hang out with my friends, being ‘embarrassed’ of my parents” that sorta thing. But my anxiety and discomfort didn’t dissipate when I got into my 20s. I was not cast out of my family of origin, but being my whole self was also not at all an option. There were long discussions/arguments with my parents about what I would wear to large family events, down to my haircut. I had a shaved head, and that was not acceptable in front of the extended family. I’d have to grow it out, borrow clothes from my sister because my masculine presenting clothes would not be acceptable either.
I’ll always remember the Thanksgiving I flew with my eldest sister and her fiancé to visit family back East. She was so worried about introducing her non-Indian fiancé to our Dadaji (Grandfather), yet it never occurred to her the pain I must have felt being told that my partner was not even invited, and had to stay back in SF. So I started to distance myself. The distance was painful, but I couldn’t handle the pain of not being my full self either. All I wanted was to be back in the love and joy place with all my cousins and kakas, kakis, fois, fuas, etc but at what cost to my mental health?
After 10 years of cooking professionally in kitchens that were Spanish, British, French, Antipodean, Californian, etc I started cooking the food I had always wanted to cook, Indian. Specifically I had always desired to cook my version of the Indian food that I grew up with and that inspired me as a chef. It started with a pop-up in a liquor store in San Francisco, and settled nicely into a little “Mom & Mom Shop” (as we called it) in Oakland as a brick & mortar restaurant. Before I could find the words to express what I was doing, author John Birdsall said it all for me in the SF Chronicle in 2014. I was so deep into opening and running the restaurant in the early years I didn’t have time to stop and think about the larger emotional impact on my psyche. Cooking the food of my culture and ancestors has brought me back to my family of origin both in my heart and also literally in my relationships with my family of origin. It has embedded a sense of identity, purpose and pride in me that took 10 years since John’s insightful piece for me to fully connect with. It’s a sense of family pride and it’s a common language when we get together.
That’s why this season on Loading Dock Talks I wanted to ask my guests about the family recipes that inspired them, and share the recipes and more with you all here. And to kick it off, I thought I’d share a recipe from my mother, that I have made my own in the past year. Handvo Madelines. One of my fav snacks my mother would make on Sundays was handvo. It’s a savory and gluten free cake made with a fermented batter and packed with veggies, peanuts and lots of flavor. Like most fermented batters it’s a couple day process, so I would spy some lentils and rice soaking on the kitchen countertop on Friday night, some early morning grinding of said lentils and rice on Saturday morning interrupting my Saturday morning cartoon routine. And then Sunday lunch with handvo, maybe some pickles or fried snacks and always oil with masala to dip.
My mother would make it in a pyrex pan, and my favorite part was always the crispy edges. Recently, I started not only craving her handvo but seeking a way to maximize the crisp in every bite. Thus, the handvo madeleine was born.
Handvo Madeleines
(Makes 30-36 madeleines)
1 cup long grain basmati rice
1/4 cup chana dal
1/4 cup moong dal
2 tablespoons toor dal
2 tablespoons urad dal
2 tablespoons masoor dal
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 head green cabbage, finely chopped
1 medium carrots, grated
1 medium zucchini, grated
2 TBS minced garlic
2 TBS minced ginger
1 TBS minced serrano chili
2 TBS Diamond Crystal salt
1/4 cup neutral oil (rice bran, sunflower, etc)
1/2 red onion, small dice
1/4 cup raw shelled peanuts, roughly chopped
10-12 curry leaves
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp baking soda or ENO fruit salt
1/2 cup white sesame seeds
Measure out rice and dals in bowl or plastic container. Cover with cold water and let sit at room temperature for at least 6 hours, ideally overnight.
Drain water off of rice & dals and transfer to blender with yogurt. Blend until totally pureed.
Soaked dals & rice Pour batter into a plastic container with a lid. Let sit overnight at room temperature.
Drain any excess water off of cabbage, carrots & zucchini and fold into batter. Add ginger, garlic, serrano chilies and salt.
Heat oil in small skillet on medium high heat. Add curry leaves, peanuts, diced onion, mustard and fenugreek seeds. Sizzle until water cooks off onions and curry leaves start to crisp and curl.
Vaghar Pour hot aromatic oil (AKA vaghar in Gujarati) into batter and stir to incorporate along with baking soda or ENO.
Pre-heat oven to 425°, and meanwhile fill the madeleine pan with batter in each spot being careful not to spill outside of the madeleine shape.
Sprinkle the tops of the madeleines with a generous amount of sesame seeds and put in oven. Bake at 425° for 12 minutes. Reduce heat to 375° and bake for 15-20 minutes. Until tops and edges are golden brown.
Remove and cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. I like to serve them with a compound butter packed with preserved lemon and spices like cumin and coriander. Traditionally we dip them in a an oil with pickling spice sprinkled in.
I’ll be publishing this newsletter every two weeks (or at least that’s the plan).
So hit that button to stay in the loop for interviews with the coolest chefs and their family recipes, personal stories, pics and probably some links to other cool things.
Oh and check out the trailer for the second season of Loading Dock Talks